Thursday, 18 December 2014

Reality unveiled.

Bishop John Keenan of Paisley has spoken about the High Court ruling over the two Scottish midwives, who were seeking the protection of law from being involved indirectly with abortions in the hospitals they worked in. The High Court has ruled against them. However, Bishop Keenan's words, the text of which I include in its entirity below, distinguishes with clarity the two cultures which today stand side by side, one is a culture, the other, an anti-culture - he says: "We
should be in no doubt that this was a battle between competing proposals
of the kind of country we want: a project propping up a culture of
death by means of oppressing any legitimate opposition to it or a vision
promoting respect for the life and freedom of all peoples." His tremendous words here unveil, as it were, what is real and true in the midst of an inauthentic version of human life which we all daily jostle with. And, in so doing he points to true human culture as the only viable course for us. Indeed, he says, it "is surely only a matter of time" before the anti-culture in which we live will be overturned - as has been the case with every single ideologically led civilisation. Enjoy digesting Bishop Keenan's words.

I read with disappointment and concern the United Kingdom’s Supreme
Court judgement against two Scottish midwives, Connie Wood and Mary
Doogan, who have today been denied their basic human right to freedom of
belief in the course of their employment in the NHS. In short they have
lost their jobs because they were pro-life. At the same time the
courageous and convincing witness of these two women, ready to take on
the might of the establishment no matter what the personal cost, makes
me and many others more certain than ever that the final victory of a
free and pro-life generation is surely only a matter of time.

Years ago Connie and Mary went into the midwifery profession
following a call of the heart to be there for mums giving birth to their
children. They devoted themselves to this work faithfully until the NHS
management decided to move an abortion provision into their unit and
demanded that they made up the abortion rosters. When Connie and Mary
made a request to be exempted because of their beliefs they were
refused, with the ultimatum that they would be sacked if they did not
comply. The NHS management pursued the case all the way to the highest
court in the land at the cost of hundreds of thousands of pounds of
taxpayers’ money. Mary and Connie had to fund their own legal costs.
Today the Supreme Court backed their NHS managers and Connie and Mary
lose their jobs even though it would have meant the most minor of
adjustments by NHS managers to get other nurses to see to the rosters.
So let us be clear right away that this case was not about depriving
women of abortion services. It was about forcing nurses who had trained
to deliver babies to become involved in medically killing them. We
should be in no doubt that this was a battle between competing proposals
of the kind of country we want: a project propping up a culture of
death by means of oppressing any legitimate opposition to it or a vision
promoting respect for the life and freedom of all peoples.

When Pope Francis addressed the European Parliament last month he
spoke of a once great Europe that used to have confidence in humanity
not so much as citizens but as men and women whom it respected as
persons endowed with transcendent dignity. This same Europe, he said,
had somehow become old and haggard, less an innovator of a better world
and now increasingly aloof, mistrusted and even suspect. He added, ‘What
kind of dignity is there without the possibility of freely expressing
your thought or professing your religious faith? What dignity can there
be without laws to limit the rule of force’ over the freedoms of others.

The decision handed down today, the collaboration of supreme judges
and NHS managers, is that of an old and tired establishment that has run
out of ideas and vision as to how to bring about a brighter and better
future for our people. Having committed itself to supporting a culture
of death in the past generation it now sees that to preserve this
culture into the next generation it has to become an oppressor of the
basic human freedoms of ever increasing numbers of its citizens and all,
with ultimate irony, in the name of being pro-choice. It has ended up
in an intellectual bankruptcy plain for all to see.

Out of all of this, however, two of the most genuinely unlikely of
heroes have emerged. Today Connie and Mary have lost their jobs, their
livelihoods and their legal arguments but will have won the respect,
good will and admiration of thousands upon thousands of their fellow
citizens up and down the land who work and hope for a better world
tomorrow, for a society that celebrates heroes who refuse to be silenced
as a voice for the voiceless and who will stand up for human life and
freedom, whatever it takes, against any reactionary forces peddling
their worn out logic of meanness and fear.

As Pope Francis said; “In many quarters we encounter a general
impression of weariness and aging, of a Europe no longer fertile and
vibrant. . . which once inspired but seems to have lost its attraction,
having been replaced by the bureaucratic technicalities of its
institutions. Such an establishment has lost its right to inspire the
young.’

Connie and Mary, on the other hand, will, without doubt, some day be
seen as pioneers of a fresh start, as inspirational staging posts for a
new generation determined that it does not have to be this way.

Ss Michael, Gabriel and Raphael

May the holy angels be our protection

Holy Michael the Archangel, defend us in the day of battle. Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, thrust down to hell Satan and all the evil spirits who wander the world for the ruin of souls.

Blessed John Paul II

Apostle of the New Evangelisation

Christ offers you his friendship. He gave his life so that those who wish to answer his call can indeed become his friends.

St Paul the Apostle

Fearless evangeliser of the nations

"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. " Galatians 2.20

St Augustine of Hippo

Anti-Pelagian hero

Fecisti nos ad te et inquietum est cor nostrum donec requiescat in teYou have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts find no rest until they rest in you.

St John Mary Baptist Vianney

Role model of priesthood lived in its fulness

Le sacerdoce, c'est l'amour du coeur de Jésus.The priesthood is the love of the Heart of Jesus.

St Ignatius of Loyola

Taught the way to friendship with Christ through prayer

Take, O Lord, and receive my entire liberty, my memory, my understanding and my whole will. All that I am and all that I possess You have given me: I surrender it all to You to be disposed of according to Your will. Give me only Your love and Your grace; with these I will be rich enough, and will desire nothing more.

St Thomas More

Hero of the Catholic Faith in England

I die the king's faithful servant, but God's first.

St Maximilian Kolbe

A martyr for friendship

No one in the world can change truth. What we can and should do is seek truth and serve it when we have found it. The real conflict is within. Beyond the armies of occupation and the hectacombs of the extermination camps, two irreconcilable armies lie in the depth of every soul. And of what use are the victories of the battlefield if we are defeated in our innermost selves?

St Aelred of Rievaulx

Teacher in the ways of friendship

Friendship is a stage bordering upon that perfection which consists in that love and knowledge of God, so that man from a friend of his fellow man becomes a friend of God, according to the words of the Saviour in the Gospel: I will not now call you servants, but my friends.

St Justin, Martyr

Proto-Apologist for the Faith

"But straightaway a flame was kindled in my soul; and a love of the prophets, and of those men who are friends of Christ, possessed me...If, then, you have any concern for yourself, and if you are eagerly looking for salvation, and if you believe in God, you may-since you are not indifferent to the matter - become acquainted with the Christ of God, and, after being initiated, live a happy life."

St Margaret Clitherow

She died for the priesthood and the Mass together with her unborn child

I ground my faith upon Jesus Christ, and by Him I steadfastly believe to be saved, as is taught in the Catholic Church through all Christendom, and promised to remain with Her unto the world's end, and hell gates shall not prevail against it: and by God's assistance I mean to live and die in the same faith.